I admit to a bit of apprehension before I arrived at The Muny last night. Come From Away is one of my favorite shows but it is a small show and The Muny is a big stage (not to mention the 11,000 seat audience). But I reminded myself that long ago I saw Carol Burnett and Rock Hudson in I Do I Do, a two person show, at The Muny and it was great. I needn't have worried, artistic director Mike Isaacson always seems to know what he is doing at The Muny.
On September 11, 2001, after the attacks on New York and the Pentagon, the airspace of the United States was shut down and all incoming planes were diverted. 38 jumbo jets landed at the airport in Gander, Newfoundland carrying 7,000 passengers which was more than the population of the town itself. Gander could handle all of the incoming flights because the airport had been built in the days when planes could not make it across the Atlantic without a refueling stop. Gander's airport was the final re-fueling stop on the trip. As the characters point out, EVERYONE used to stop in Gander - the Beatles, Fidel Castro, the Queen. With the advent of the newer jets the stops were unnecessary but the big airport remained.
The town of Gander itself did not, however, have facilities for 7,000 guests and so the people of Gander and the nearby towns banded together to take in the "plane people". They housed, fed and comforted 7,000 people until the airspace was re-opened a few days later.
All of the characters in the musical are based on real people and each actor plays multiple parts, switching accents and costumes as needed. Heidi Blickenstaff, a Broadway veteran, made an excellent Muny debut playing the dual roles of Beverly, the captain of an American Airlines jet, as well as a teacher at the local academy that houses many of the plane people. Local talent Zoe Vonder Haar played Beulah, the head of the school, as well as a number of minor roles. Ashley Brown and John Bolton principally played Diane and Nick, two plane people who meet and are attracted to each other, but both also played other small roles. Abigail Isom was Janice, the TV reporter who was new to her job. Trey DeLuna and Jason Tam played the two Kevins, a gay couple whose relationship is challenged by the circumstances. DeLuna also played Ali, the Egyptian man who is among the passengers (he looked familiar to me and I later realized he had played the same roles in the national tour that I saw last year). Alan Green was Bob, the man from New York who suffered from anxiety. Finally, Adam Heller played Claude the mayor of Gander as well as others including the Mayor of Appleton. There wasn't a weak link in the entire cast.
The original Broadway production utilized a rotating stage to show scene changes on a minimalist set. The touring company, knowing that many theaters don't have rotating stages, re-choreographed it so that scene changes were done solely through movement of the characters. The Muny combined those approaches. There is a rotating stage (a quite large one) and it was utilized but not in the same way as the Broadway production. Scenic designer Edward E. Haynes, Jr. and director Seth Sklar-Heyn designed a large but simple set on the rotating stage. When viewed from the front there are a series of rising levels with the minimalist chairs and tables that can be moved around to show different scenes. When the stage rotates the back is a sheer drop that can be used as a backdrop for other scenes or that the characters can look out from.
I thought it worked reasonably well at filling the big Muny stage. I think it would have worked better if the lighting design had managed to have the spots always pick up the characters as they sang, Diane is a big role but often it seemed that her character was in the back (albeit higher on the risers) and it was hard to pick her out when she was singing.
The production was enhanced by the use of projections on the huge rear wall what appeared to be real archival footage from Gander from those days. All in all, while I like the original design and choreography better, I thought the design worked and I enjoyed the production.
The story of the kindness of the people of Gander to the plane people is heart warming without being maudlin. It is good to be reminded of how lucky we are to have good Canadian neighbors.
On a personal level, I used to work with a man who was on one of the flights diverted to Gander. He and his wife were returning from Europe when they were diverted. I remember him telling me about this in 2008 and saying that they still kept in touch with their Gander hosts.
We lucked out in terms of weather. The Muny is an outdoor theater and patrons are subject to the whims of the weather gods. The threatened thunderstorms did not materialize, the horrible humidity we have been having for the last week dropped enough to be bearable and there were occasional breezes to cool us off.
Come From Away plays through July 2 and if you can get there I recommend it.
